Monday, October 29, 2007

I haven't written anything in a long, long, long, long...you get the idea...time. So bear with me if this is lame-O!

The wind howled outside sixteen year old Sarah’s window, low and angry causing a branch to slap noisily against the glass, twigs screeched back and forth. Sarah sat in the middle of the room, going through boxes as she unpacked her belongings yet again. Her family never stayed in one place too long though her parents would not say why, she always thought it had something to do with her family heritage; they were descendants of Gypsies, a nomadic people. Lightning arced across the sky and an ear-shattering boom shook the house, the lights flickered, dimmed then returned.

Sarah leapt up, heart in her throat, she wasn’t fond of thunderstorms, and the house truly creped her out. It was a really old house, built in the early nineteen hundreds, everything creaked and moaned as if it would collapse any moment and she was sure she could actually feel the structure swaying with the wind. Sarah grabbed the flashlight off of her dresser and decided to keep it close by…just in case. The tree slapped against the window harder than ever now and rain also pelted the dense glass, lightning lit up the sky outside and everything went black as a terrifying crash brought forth an uncontrollable squeal from the frightened Sarah.

Sarah switched the flashlight on and decided to go check on her mom and dad, she wasn’t going to get anything unpacked with the lights out anyway. The rain sounded like an army marching across the roof, drowning out everything else with the exception of the thunder that continued to shake the house. She held her flashlight in front of her with shaky hands, she really, really was beginning to hate the house and it was only her first night in it. Sarah hated the icy feeling that creped up her spine as she made her way down the long hall to the stairs. Why had her parents decided to take the room at the far end of the house, didn’t they think about situations like this?

From deep with the heart of the house Sarah heard a blood-curdling scream. She took off in a dead run to see if her mother was hurt, She almost lost her balance and tumbled down the stairs in the darkness, but caught at the banner just in time. She decided the house was built well after all, as the banner didn’t even shake when her meager weight of 100 lbs slammed against it. She took a second to steady herself then was back on the go to get to her mom. The eerie cry echoed through the house again just as her mother nearly ran her over going to see why her daughter was screaming.

Sarah screeched as she collided with her mom, both asked the other at the same time. “Are you ok?” Sarah looked at her mom, “That wasn’t me, I was coming down to see if you were alright” Her mom just shook her head. “It wasn’t me, I was in the living room with your father trying to hang a mirror.” They grasped hands as the terrible sound rung throughout the enormous place, neither could tell what direction it was coming from anymore as it seemed to pulse from within the walls of the house itself. Sarah had to raise her voice to be heard. “Mom, this is freaking me out, lets go get dad and get out of here.” Her mother pulled her closer and started toward the living room. “Sounds good to me.” When they entered the room he was lighting candles and hurricane lamps, looking around trying to find the source of the endless wail that seemed to match the vibrations that steadily picked up in strength as it strummed through the house. Sarah could feel in vibrating through her bones, terror gripped her mind as the horrors surrounding her seemed to want to swallow them up.

“Dad, we have to get out of here…please.” She tugged at his arm as he slowly made his way to the living room door. He was going right toward the noise as if he had no choice. She turned to her mother for help, but she too was following the terrible wail. “Mother! Stop! You can’t do this!” Sarah was frantic to snap them out of their stupor; she slapped her mom hard, wincing at having to do such a thing. Her mother never flinched. She pulled hard on her father again and he flung her against the wall, knocking the breath out of her.

Tears shimmered at the corners of Sarah’s eyes as she pushed herself up off of the floor. Her parents were no longer in her line of sight and she hurried to catch up, what she saw when she rounded the corner stole her voice. She tried to cry out, but found herself unable as she watched her father’s hand disappear impossibly into the crack in the floor. She rushed to help her mother and hit a barrier. She finally found her voice as she watched her mothers beautiful features twist in pain as what looked like nothing more than a shadow poured up through the floor, wrapping its self tightly around her mother’s ankles.

Her mother looked up, Sarah could see that she was aware of what was happening around her, she looked at Sarah and mouthed the words: I love you. Then she screamed and blood sprayed from her ankles. Her feet were being pulled down into the impossibly small crack between the floorboards. Sarah could hear bones popping and crunching, splinters of bone shot across the room; getting larger in size the farther her body was pulled. Her mother stopped screaming when her chest was pulled into the floor, her ribs snapped and dug deeply into her lungs.

Her misery had finally ended and Sarah watched in stunned terror as her mother’s lovely face and head took on an odd shape, the eyes that once held so much life bulged monstrously from their sockets, one oozed a sickening yellow substance that caused Sarah to vomit as it rolled to her feet and stopped, staring at her accusingly. Sarah took one last glance toward her mother before everything around her swirled into black and she collapsed to the floor…

Eye Of The Beholder...

People often say that 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder,' and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that YOU are the beholder. This empowers us to find beauty in places where others dared not look, including inside ourselves...

Salma Hayek

Windows To The Soul...

I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may - light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful.

John Constable (1776 - 1837)

Discoveries are often made by not following instructions; by going off the main road; by trying the untried. - Frank Tyger